With the rising level of penetration of smartphones or internet connected mobile devices, end users demand higher volumes of data transfer and need said data to be delivered as fast as possible.
The current generation of smartphones (e.g. i-Phone, Google Nexus One) make available to the end user a huge number of client applications, many of them causing a frequent transmission and reception of small amounts of data (e.g. Weather forecast, Facebook messages, etc.).
When frequent, small packets are sent by the Application Servers in the cloud (Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, storage, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the electricity grid) to the client application(s) in the terminal, the access network is forced to frequently establish and release Radio Access bearers (RABs or RBs) able to deliver those packets to the end user. Establishing/Deleting a Radio Connection involves an amount of signalling.
Most of the time, internet connected devices remain on idle state, just sending and receiving small amounts of data keeping connections alive which actually involves opening and closing connections.
All of the above causes a significant increase in the signalling load in the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) or GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN), with subsequent need to increase the installed capacity in the network elements handling such a signalling, such as RNCs, and consequent increase in the capital expenditure from the network operator.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to be able to reduce the signalling load without significantly impacting the user experience.